Religious Belief, Essay Example

The primary focus of anthropology is to examine the scientific aspects of human behavior, and be an instrumental factor in the promotion of human flourishing. Anthropology is one of the most scientific components throughout the field of science and humanities that have grown out of a system of going beyond instilled beliefs. One of the oldest beliefs systems throughout the human civilization is religion, or a belief in supernatural entities. While there are some that feel that beliefs are responsible for evolutionary and cognitive science, there are others that are apprehensive to the limits that beliefs brings to the field. In trying to assess the capacities and the limits of the anthropological study of belief, this paper will use the work from Luhrmann, as well as other secondary data to answer the question.

The foundation of anthropology was founded on the boundary fewer confines of religious authority. Born out of the Enlightenment Period, the discipline of the anthropology studies involves the study of humankind past and present in cultures throughout the world. With the advancement of human thought and behaviors, the scope of anthropology has branched out into several disciplines. The total objectives of anthropology involve objectively understanding the reasons for the differences and similarities among human behaviors and their ideals. The central concepts involved in global cultures are the share systems of values, beliefs, behaviors, custom, and objects of humans. The investigated manner that anthropologists work to gather data on the human, include several methods that involve cognitive, social, and cultural methods. Unlike other fields of science, anthropology takes a holistic view in evaluating the human experience that involves all things in the scope of humanity. One of the biggest subjects that have been broken up into several specialized fields, involves religion and how the human life has been organized around it. The anthropology of religion compares the belief systems and practices across global cultures. With the spread of modernity in anthropology, the concepts of belief systems have extended to include other forms of religion, and magical thinking that is practiced in human cultures. This can be encompassed in anthropology of religion, socio-cultural anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

Beliefs in the field of anthropology has been a part of a long philosophical debate in which some use to further the systems of religion that are a part of the underlying framework of culture and society, while others broadly define belief as, “a linguistic-cognitive stance in relation to a propositional claim or as a social psychological emotional commitment evidenced through embodiment, practice, and memory” (Dein 2013). Religion is a belief system that makes it essential to correctly map out the coherence and the meaning of beliefs prior to comprehend the effects and function of religion. Beliefs in anthropology are closely associated with religion and have been prominently supported from several notable anthropologist from Clifford Geertz, Evens Pritchard, and more recently Tanya Luhrmann. Her research has largely promulgated the views in which beliefs of religion have cultivated the capacity for individuals to hear or see things that other believers cannot. In her example of studying those in the Evangelical church, they heard the voice of God in their prayers. While she strives not to take the position if God is real or not, she does use experiments and ethnographical techniques of those that use prayer to formulate their inner awareness and those that do not. (Luhrmann 2012) As Rosemary Joyce writes (2012), “This is far from classic approaches to religion, which could shade towards treating other people’s beliefs as ways to rationalize an unknowable world of causation (Joyce 2012). The pillars of belief serve the social function to fulfil the social needs of individuals, and serves as a dynamic and powerful forces within society.

Empirical science approach belief in several methods, where the definition can vary based on the nominal term. As part of the problem in understanding the scientific methods of beliefs, is by focusing on if belief is a part of the science itself, as it cannot rid the concepts of the basis of ethnocentric. Within the scope of anthropology and the study of human behaviors, beliefs that are backed by religion are motivators of human behaviors. The belief system of religion influence and permeates all parts of human cultures. It is a universal system in which involves all stages of history, past and present. The anthropological approach looks at the cultural system of religion that cannot be fully understood from the systems it interacts with. Looking at the cultural aspects of religion involves the perspective in which religion is a projection of the values of society, and the studying of the classification and symbols to understand religion.

In looking at the capacities and the limits of the anthropology study of beliefs, anthropologist must considered the social, psychological, and political functions of beliefs. In the aspects of increasing the system of belief, the religious system in the United States has seen several in the mainstream church decrease in church attendance, and religions that follow are more new age belief system increase. What has sparked this change as Luhrmann believes is that people consider their spiritual experience with God, not just in a majestic form, but as intimate personal relationship where he has become a friend. (Luhrmann 2012) Beliefs are a concept of people’s own cognitive desire, constructed for understanding and guiding their actions. Many studies have concluded that systems of beliefs are derivative in guiding an individual’s desires, and shape their desires. It is part of a habitual system in which people beliefs turn into actions. The limits of the study of belief are shrouded in anthropologist not being able to give it a clear definition. Needham notes, “in contemporary usage religious belief refers to the acceptance of a religious statement, and colours his acceptance with shades of emotion and loyalty which he likens to love and trust between lovers or friends” (Dein 2013). While anthropologist study the scope of beliefs in cultures from around the world, it is largely regarded to the western culture, although born from the Protestant’s New Testament modern era.

The focal concept of belief is not a part of other religions such as those in the Asian religions, where ritual is more practical than belief. Others have explained the limitations that the term belief is wrapped up in ideological and theoretical baggage, where instead of the study must be looked at through the concepts of religion and through the bodies of individuals. The definition used for religion uses as universal view in which gives way to diverse possibilities and dynamics of power explained, “products of historically distinctive disciplines and forces, not as the result of superimposed systems of belief, ritual, political power, and other elements” (Dein 2013). Many feel that is where anthropologist should began when looking at the underlying factors, since religion is not the same everywhere.

Studying belief is central through our bodies, as Lurhmann pointed out. The increase in media and the internet has people search to experience religion through a psychologically anomalous nature, where metakinetically is then utilized to build a relationship with God (Luhrmann 2012). Technology and the internet have provided people with a virtual reality in which changes the way people experiment with their bodies. It is largely in the Christian church where the concept of belief has been occupied as a state of mind than a global activity. Others that support the limitations of the study of religion contend that beliefs are an unobservable concept where belief does not exist in science, since observation is a fundamental factor of science. This is promulgated by Rodney Needham that backs the statements that the studying of belief, “does not constitute a natural resemblance among men, and it does not belong to the common behavior of mankind” (Dein, 2013).

In Western culture, much emphasis is placed on the conception of scientific rational that is problematic in the approach of observing the concept of belief. There is no direct way in which belief can be observed through a rational explanation. The purpose of science is to give a rational explanation for human or natural phenomena resultant from unprejudiced sensorial observations.  Looking critically at the scientific methods used, the observations will rely on the practice of induction and deduction that help to give credibility to the generated scientific knowledge. As Theodore Petrus (2006) points out:

“That valid scientific knowledge is that which can be gained via objective inductive observation. That which is observed, as well as the observer, have an influence on ideas of what constitutes rational explanation of what is observed. ” (Petrus 2006)

When trying to observe belief, if can only be provided thus far through ritual behavior, which includes the practice of religion, that if something supernatural were to occur those that exist within the culture would interpret as a supernatural occurrence. This becomes problematic when trying to find a scientific rationale while also trying to explain dismiss the perceived supernatural interpretation.

The science of beliefs is limited by the inability to scientifically separate religious beliefs from scientific analysis. More importantly science has yet to refute or support the beliefs of religion, but has to be scientifically driven to see the motivation of individuals’ acceptance of religious beliefs. The capacities of beliefs are placed in the focal of anthropology studying the traditions of religion rather than beliefs that are mental representations. Looking critically at how many religions are evolving, the concept of belief will not always be a central focal point. More emphasis would be placed on ritual, practice, and material forms that will force anthropologist to move beyond religion.

When looking at the capacities in which beliefs can further the knowledge of the field, it is best in explaining the rationalization of behaviors, and helps in altering the ways in which people invest in others. The studying of beliefs helps in predicting prosocial behavior, and help in post-mortem payoffs, i.e. the afterlife. Beliefs are expressed in several ways that include myth in which guides people to critically deal with problems and things that are not understood.  The limitations and the capacities all are essential in explaining the paradigm within sciences, in which it would be prejudicial and irrational to dismiss, supernatural beliefs. In studying beliefs, it could provide alternative explanations for phenomena that sometimes science is unable to explain. There are certain uncertainties in science, which cannot provide the absolute truth for everything within the world (Uncertainty Principle).  Science dwells within a paradigm itself because it has yet to provide a definite answer for all the world’s anomalies, and science in itself is limited. This gives way for the possibilities of studying belief and the strengths of explaining the unexplainable. Looking at beliefs through the anthropological lenses, opens up the possibilities of influencing modern science, and comprehension of other cultures. More importantly it can be used in investigating the supernatural claims of other concepts.

The concepts in which involve the function of religions that help in guiding the social and moral behaviors of individuals. By guiding the moral principles of individuals, it helps in gaining approval for doing what is right, and fearing suffering retribution if they do something wrong. Psychologically, belief provide an emotional comfort to things that might be unexplainable. Luhrmann believes that when people have a personal relationship with God, it provides a sense of reality of someone external to them, and the loneliest of people experience themselves in a world that is awash with love. (Luhrmann 2012) Studying the effects of prayers on an individual’s shows that it provides people with comfort that enable people to cope with fears, anxieties of the unknown, fears, and lifts the burden of moral decision making. The capacity of belief is central in helping people to deal with life crisis such as serious illnesses, marriage, and births. In looking at the scientific phenomenon of the supernatural, it is linked with the beliefs in religion, which is used to explain the inexplicable.

The capacity of anthropology in itself is used in the attempt to explain the inexplicable human phenomena through natural terms, and scientific rationalization. The objective of anthropology revolves around the ambiguous nature of being both a natural and social science, and apart of humanities. Studying beliefs is a part of the ability to explain the unexplainable through a scientific rationale. The limitations however, is that by addressing the scientific matter of religion, they must also go beyond the concept of belief as the world of religion is evolving and changing into something more. People are gaining a different type of relationship with their God, and they have to go beyond the realms of Western religions to encompass the global aspects of the belief systems that influence millions of people.

The concepts of belief go beyond the problems of religion. For centuries, wars have been fought, and political action has been taken over beliefs in ideologies, philosophers, and religious. Throughout history, the internal problem that has persisted is the pursuit to gain all knowledge of the world. However, when looking through anthropological lenses, it studies the way in which impact cultures and human behaviors. Using the concept of epistemology that studies both belief and thought, it tries to understand how belief is used in knowledge, and thought in the justification of what the person’s believes is true. Anthropology uses an ethnography that focuses on cultural groups that encompass the behaviors and the values promulgated through society as a cultural norm.

Looking at other religions the concepts and the ritual practice of believing in supernatural phenomena is not just central to Western religions. It is used in several religions throughout the world that practice several different belief systems that include sorcery, witchcraft, mythology, and other spiritual aspects. The study of belief is not just central to that in the field of anthropology but also other sciences that have focused on its ability to changes people’s state of mind, attitudes, and behaviors by influencing their conscious thoughts. In understanding beliefs, it can be looked at cognitively. It is simply a part of the mental representation of a person’s thinking that has yet to provide a definite scientific definition. Using the work from, Harry West, he provides an ethnocentric view in which to study the concepts of belief and thought. Looking at the sorcery practices in Mueda plateau of northern Mozambique during the 90s and the 2000s, he looks at how the belief in the school religion is prominent. West first embarked out on his research to battle the claims that people in Mozambique were backward looking. His research steered towards the concept or religion of sorcery. There is much stigmatism about witchcraft and sorcery in Africa, and the work on the assumptions from the ethnographer’s study on their future. To answer the question about the relative strengths of thought and belief, there are variances in the approaches to the study of beliefs. West sees both concepts as a mutually exclusive approaches in which, contradicts the anthropological approach, but instead allow for an interpretative strategy that tries to understand the belief systems around the world.

West used several ethnographic pieces that help to describe how the beliefs, thoughts, and language of the Muedans use in sorcery gives people the ability to transform the relations of power.(West 2010)  West contends that the anthropology’s approach to understanding belief and religion focuses much on symbolism that treats the study in a metaphorical sense. West decides to write on the subject of belief, more particularly how belief is seen as a metaphor to describe the concepts of sorcery. His book does not just explain the Muedan’s use of sorcery, but West himself provides a metaphoric view on how the language of sorcery allows for a metadiscursive inversion on a domain that is relatively invisible. (West 2010) This is seen in his passage on the “doctor’s” healing methods using divination and medicine to illustrate the lion exists, and how by dispelling the lions, it also counteracts the sorcery of ruin. The symbolism of the lion serves as a dangerous predator and a protector that provides a strong ambivalence in the beliefs of power in the real world. The Muedan believe they are able to transform into a spirit lion that crosses over into the physical realm and devour their enemies. West’s approach to that of defining sorcery as a discourse they Muedans and West agree that the knowledge and the language of sorcery are sorcery. The ideal of any discourse within society is the representation of rhetorical art via verbal metaphor, in which the underlying purpose is to transcend the gap between belief and the scientific approach to understand the reality. Everyone is capable of sorcery, while the symbolic analysis or metaphoric view can be a representation of the social reality. Within his passages speaking on the thoughts of sorcery, sorcery is used in a way for people to distort or alter their reality. The strength of belief has similar comparisons in Africa as it does in the Western culture.

Religion in Africa.is seen as a belief in the invisible world that is inundated with spiritual or supernatural forces that they believe has an effective power in the material world. (West 2010) The Muedan use sorcery as a strategy that feeds on the wellbeing of their neighbors, kin, and rivals. The people render themselves invisible to others by transforming from their earthly body, and inhabiting an invisible realm to gain the advantage of being able to see what others cannot. (West 2010)  The problematic of belief and thought is that the metaphor is constituted by the beliefs that are can explain social realities and historical events, however, not treated as a scientific explanation that is neither true of false. Belief in the symbolic forms influences the school of thought in which, are not just imitations but objects of reality that becomes real because the mental and intellectual representations promulgates these objects. The strengths of belief show that the supernatural world in Africa provides power that can transform people and their lives. The strength in this belief is one that occupies the central thinking of the people in Mueda. Sorcery provides a connection to supernatural phenomena to explain the unexplainable and bring order where there is chaos. Unlike in the West, witchcraft in Africa still provides special acts and capacities, such as the ability to leave one’s body, or obtain another pair of eyes that help in transforming the individual. It is a belief system in which only a few are privy to, which provides a stigmatism that makes the claims that those that study or take part in witchcraft are primitive. The abilities of obtaining a second pair of eyes allows the believers to see the supernatural world, and can transform them into any form.

The problems that West describe within his passages, is that sorcery is not known well in the United States. The United States is largely a conformist society in which people want to promote the status quo, where people want to stay in the lines of the social norm. Throughout the American history, when people were accused of witchcraft, people mostly women were burned at the stake, drowned, or other forms of torture because of the belief that those that studied witchcraft were evil. Because other religions began to accuse people of practicing witchcraft, the best way in which to address the vital themes of thought and belief was to study the religion through an interpretative strategy. (West 2010) Through his honesty in the approach to studying witchcraft in Africa, he sees the problems of beliefs and thought, largely through the anthropological approach as seeing as a metaphor. West provides a definition of what is truth to the individual:

“A mobile army or metaphors, metonyms, and antropo-morphisms—in short a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusion about which one has forgotten that this what they are; metaphors which are worn are out and without sensuous power….” (45)

Truth is wrapped in the individuals’ belief that influencing their conscious thought and their actions for everyday life. The strength of the Muedan’s belief is that sorcery provides a way in which they are able to confront their challenges. In West’s justification his own personal realization through his years of fieldwork, gives way to an ethnographer’s perspective of seeing things in order to gain an interpretive preeminence over a complex, and confusing world through sorcery. From his research, he provides the strengths of belief has become a projection of society in which, people are all ethnographic sorcerers in manmade world, which was molded by the interpretative visions of others. The Muedans has essential deceived themselves in believing in a world in which they created that gave them a sense of form consciousness. (West 2010) Unlike the anthropological approach in studying their belief systems, the Muedans know that in the engagement in the world requires the development of an interpretative vision, and attempts to persuade an individual to conform to their vision, as it consistently transforms. It is a major strength in one of the problems of belief and thought, in which anthropologists have the ethical dilemma in trying to position their own views of knowledge superior to other discourses.

The problems of belief are that involves or represents a conscious mental representation, where though is mostly the absence of emotional belief. Beliefs are consistent emotional propositions, where people use beliefs to invent social laws, rules, and societies without an absolute trust in the leaders. While within this paper, the limits and capacities of studying belief have been discussed, there are certain problems that espouse on beliefs and thoughts that lack beliefs. When trying to scientifically approach the concept, it has been seen to be a conscious barrier that prevents great thinkers such as Aristotle from going beyond their own rationale in discovering new things. The strengths of believing while has its limitations on the train of thinking without barriers, it has helped in the development of establishing explanations for understanding the universe. The anthropological approach to studying beliefs and thoughts can provide a scientific mechanism, as the strength of believe involves a metal process that increases the neural activity in people’s brain.

In the example of the Muedans, their belief in their powers of sorcery provides them with convincing conscious that they have fooled themselves into believing they need to survive. However, the approach to treating other discourses in the world that does not fit in the ‘norm’ as a metaphor does not yield the results that provide an explanation of how the supernatural phenomena can be explained scientifically. Instead, using a more mutual approach in looking not only at the culture, but also the way in which people’s beliefs provide them with projection that their claims could possibly be true. Beliefs however, can provide a dangerous sense of trust and thinking, where not everything falls into an agreement with the rest of the world’s view. Looking at belief as a metaphor for powers, which emerge from the capacity of symbolism to create the juxtaposition and the combination of experiences and ideas outside of the normal scope.

Using West’s work and information provided in the class, we can see that systems of belief and thought can create a difference of approach that is can be better than how anthropology studies beliefs. In accessing the problems of thought and belief that can be mutually exclusive to the field of anthropology. Looking at the belief as a metaphor can take away from the importance of the discourse of other religions that are thoroughly understood to the Western culture. By looking through an ethnographic view, it can provide a more personal and better understanding of how beliefs work in the individual and in society. Ethnography infuses the ideals of the power of belief, and the strengths through observable discourse.

Bibliography

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Joyce, Rosemary. “What Makes Us Human. And one percent Neanderthal.” Psychology Today. 2012.http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-makes-us-human/201204/belief-in-anthropology

Luhrmann, Tanya. M. “Metakinesis: How God Becomes Intimate in Contemporary U.S. Christianity.” American Anthropologist. Vol. 106, No.3. Sep 2004.

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West, Harry G. Ethnographic Sorcery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2008.